1. Introduction

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. East Asian economic integration and the role of ERIA The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) aims to make intellectual inputs in response to regional policy research needs for economic integration by conducting policy studies and capacity-building activities. This “Test-run” Roadmap Project is intended to support the initiative of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and beyond by identifying research agendas to address various challenges in the region. For decades, ASEAN and East Asia have achieved remarkable economic growth and have been one of the world’s leading growth centers. A notable feature of the East Asian economic growth is its effective utilization of globalizing forces. Corporate activities are conducted beyond national borders, international division of labor in terms of production processes has been extensively developed, and East Asia has created massive vertical intra-industry trade1. Although the development literature often claims that globalization would aggravate internal and external income disparity, it is not necessarily the case in East Asia. Rather, the East Asian experience tells us that two objectives — the deepening of economic integration and the narrowing of development gaps — can be pursued at the same time. We have often observed that the economic dynamism that comes from utilizing differences in location advantages and avoiding congestion in agglomeration has resulted in numerous economic activities being shifted to relatively undeveloped regions or countries in East Asia, which has resulted in relatively equitable socioeconomic conditions. Recent academic studies have analyzed the entangled mechanism of such favorable links of economic integration to development. Newly developed fields of research, such as the fragmentation trade theory and the New Economic Geography (NEG), seem to work as powerful analytical tools for investigating the mechanism. To draw concrete policy recommendations for deepening economic integration and narrowing 1 In this report, “East Asia” is defined as the region of East Asian Summit (EAS). 2 development gaps, a robust analytical foundation must be established. In addition, as an essential prerequisite, conditions for sustainable economic growth must also be realized. There are increasing concerns in the region about issues relating to energy and the environment, as well as macroeconomic stability and the need for structural reforms; these matters should be subjected to rigorous policy studies. There have been a number of efforts made to foster economic integration in East Asia. Notably, the AEC and some bilateral/plurilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) have proposed a policy framework for deeper economic integration with concrete time schedules. These efforts at the policy level, however, have not yet been fully supported by academic input. For steady and effective implementation, rigorous policy studies are urgently required, the topics of which include the evaluation of the current status of integration, economic justification and prioritization of various policy modes, the streamlining of multiple integration efforts, etc. East Asian economic integration is no doubt very challenging since the countries have large differences in terms of economic development, political system, and historical and cultural background. However, we would like to turn these differences into a source of dynamism and pursue economic integration for a more prosperous future of the region. 1.2. Organization of ERIA research projects and this report This project entitled “Developing a Roadmap toward East Asian Economic Integration” was launched as a test-run project in the ERIA Expert Group Meeting (EEGM) on April 1, 2007, in Manila, aiming to establish a strategic framework for constructing a comprehensive roadmap toward the AEC and beyond that meets three objectives: a) deepening economic integration, b) narrowing development gaps, and c) sustainable economic growth2. Under the umbrella of this project, five research projects were launched in the subsequent EEGM in Kuala Lumpur in May 2007, to conduct in-depth research on 2 Another test-run project on “Energy Security in East Asia” was launched in the meeting as well. This test-run project comprises of three specific research projects, namely, (1) Analysis on Energy Saving Potential in East Asia Region, (2) Investigation on Sustainable Biomass Utilisation Vision in East Asia, and (3) Standardization of Biodiesel Fuel for Vehicles in East Asia. Reports from these projects are being published separately. 3 specific issues: (1) Deepening Economic Integration, led by Dr. Hadi Soesastro, Executive Director, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia; (2) Infrastructure Development in East Asia: Towards Balanced Regional Development and Integration, led by Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Director General, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), India; (3) Analyses of Industrial Agglomeration, Production Networks and FDI Promotion: Developing Practical Strategies for Industrial Clustering, led by Dr. Mohamed Ariff, Executive Director, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), Malaysia; (4) Development Strategy for CLMV in the Age of Economic Integration, led by Dr. Chap Sotharith, Executive Director, Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), Cambodia; and (5) Asian SMEs and Globalization, led by Dr. Hank Lim, Research Director, Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), Singapore. Part I of this report is organized as follows: Chapter 2 provides overviews on the nature and characteristics of the East Asian economy. Chapter 3 investigates links among the three objectives using the framework of the fragmentation trade theory and New Economic Geography. The required policy environment is also discussed in this chapter. Chapters 4 to 9 are devoted to demonstrating the findings and policy recommendations of the five other ERIA research projects. Part II comprises perspectives on East Asian economic integration from the 16 countries in the ERIA initiative. 4 2. NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EAST ASIAN ECONOMY 2.1. Economic growth and income disparities ASEAN and East Asia have achieved remarkable economic growth and have led dynamism among developing economies in the world. Since the late 1980s, in particular, East Asia has successfully attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) and has effectively taken advantage of globalizing forces for its development. Figure 2-1 is a night photo of the earth taken from NASA’s satellites. It utilizes a bird’s-eye view of the world to show where economic activity is concentrated in 2000. We can identify the distribution of economic activities on the earth by the density of the lights in the night. Figure 2-1: Three sparkling regions (November 27, 2000) Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive. Source: Downloaded from NASA website (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html). We can readily recognize three sparkling regions (circled in the photo), each extending across national borders. The brightest region is the core area of the North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which consists of the US, together 5 with the southern part of Canada and the northern part of Mexico. The next brightest region is Europe, containing the European Union (EU). The third is East Asia, extending along the East China Sea and South China Sea from Japan to Indonesia. India also has a large sparkling area. Figure 2-2: GDP of East Asia, EU27 and NAFTA (billion US$, current prices) 45,000 40,000 NAFTA EU27 35,000 EAS16 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Source: IMF, World Economic Outlook Database, October 2007. In fact, as Figure 2-2 shows, the GDP of enlarged East Asia, consisting of ASEAN 10, plus three (China, Japan, and Korea), and plus three (Australia, India, and New Zealand), is rapidly approaching to the GDP of the other major regions of NAFTA and EU-27. To be precise, in 2006, the GDP of enlarged East Asia was US$ 10,699 billion, which was slightly lower than those of EU-27 (US$ 14,610 billion) and NAFTA (US$ 15,310 billion).3 Figure 2-2 also indicates that over the 26-year period from 1980 to 2006, the GDP of enlarged East Asia grew the fastest (5.3 times), compared to those of EU (4.0 times) and NAFTA (4.7 times). 3 In this report, East Asia includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand. EU27 consists of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. 6 In terms of the share in the world total GDP in 2006, the enlarged East Asia accounted for 22.2% of global GDP, while the EU-27 generated 30.3%, and NAFTA 31.7%. In sum, 84.2% of global GDP was concentrated in the three regions. In 1980, the corresponding shares were 17.2% for the enlarged East Asia, 31.4% for EU-27, 27.7% for NAFTA, with the three regions combining for 76.2%. Hence, the concentration of the world GDP in the three regions has recently been intensifying, with East Asia growing the fastest. The geographical size of NAFTA is about the same as that of East Asia, as we can see in Figure 2-1. In fact, the flight distance between New York and Los Angeles is equivalent to the distance between Tokyo and Bangkok. This means that, given today’s technologies, the geographical area of NAFTA or East Asia represents a natural spatial unit of economic activity that extends far beyond traditional nation-states, though much smaller than the whole world. Also notice that East Asia contains the East China Sea and South China Sea in the middle, a geographical circumstance that renders cargo transport costs cheaper in East Asia than in NAFTA. Thus, East Asia is not as big as commonly thought. In contrast, the geographical size of the EU is considerably smaller than that of NAFTA and of East Asia.

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